Congrats!

Congratulations to Stephen and Carol Brown on the birth of their daughter, Stefi Gabrielle. She's beautiful guys!

Quote

"The Bible's purpose is not so much to show you how to live a good life. The Bible's purpose is to show you how God’s grace breaks into your life against your will and saves you from the sin and brokenness otherwise you would never be able to overcome... religion is 'if you obey, then you will be accepted'. But the Gospel is, 'if you are absolutely accepted, and sure you’re accepted, only then will you ever begin to obey'. Those are two utterly different things. Every page of the Bible shows the difference."

-Tim Keller

The Office returns!

Favorite show to many Xroads attenders and staff, The Office, returns to television tonight after a months long absence due to the writer's strike.

To pump you up, here's an interview with Office star John Krasinski over at the Onion AV Club website.

AVC: How did the strike affect the show? The Office can do standalone episodes as well, but it also has plot developments. What happens when the strike blows a hole through the season? How do you recover from that and make a complete season out of it?

JK: I didn't know how they were going to do it. But I think they've done a great job of sort of picking up and creating these little mini-arcs, and just planting seeds. But yeah, the strike definitely devastated any chances of long lead arcs or very intricate arcs. I was really interested to see where it's going to go, but it didn't affect the tone of the show. Some of our funniest episodes are coming up now. And every episode relies at least a little on having some prior knowledge of the show. For instance, on our first episode back, Pam and I finally go to dinner with Michael and Jan, which has been in the works for a long, long time.

As you watch tonight, remember that Phyllis totally knows who "Pastor Glen" is.

Books that changed you

Back when I was in high school I had a friend recommend the book, Real Christians Don't Dance (that's not exactly the title - on the cover, the "don't" has an x through it, but that's hard to represent when typing). He actually loaned me his copy and I don't think I ever gave it back.

The book was written by John Fischer, who, at the time, wrote for a couple of Christian music magazines and had a musical career of his own, I think. The book was a collection of essays on challenging the standard Christian mindset. It wasn't a radical book, or filled with earth-shattering ideas, but when I read it, it completely challenged my thinking on what it meant to be a Christian. Furthermore, I think the books quiet, slightly self-effacing storytelling had a direct effect on my own communication styles.

What about you? What books have you read that completely changed the way you think about things (and I'm not just looking for Christian, spiritual, or self-help books here - if To Kill A Mockingbird changed your life, let's hear about it)?